Category: Community knowledge

Websites and apps are a relatively new way to engage with the public for policy development and specific development proposals. Public engagement apps, like Commonplace and City Swipe, can be used on smartphones, tablets and computers and provide a way to reach a different demographic (usually younger) than is typical found at engagement events.

The London Borough of Waltham Forest used the Commonplace app to engage the local community on a £30m investment program in local cycling facilities and public space. Over 15,000 comments were received from the public about their needs and feedback on design.

The findings in Waltham Forest were unexpected for some members of the community. For example, local shop owners thought that most people drove to their shops and were surprised to find that most people walk.(1) Questions can be loaded on to the app in a survey format. Data is analysed immediately and accessible in reports and infographics via a client dashboard.

Glasgow City Council worked with the Glasgow Centre for Population Health and the Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS to create a placemaking tool called HSN Placemaker. The two key areas of focus for the project were to use placemaking to reduce obesity (through walking and cycling) and mental illness (through greater involvement in neighbourhood design and decision-making).

The interactive Placemaker tool sought to stimulate thinking and debate. Users accessed images of existing streetscapes across Scotland and chose from a selection of options to change the look or use of a place. During the process of using the tool, users were prompted to think about the impact of their choices on community health and wellbeing and the natural environment.

This tool was used to inform the Place Standard tool which has a strong emphasis on health and wellbeing.(2)

Further information

(1) Commonplace Case Study: Waltham Forest Mini Holland. Available from: http://commonplace.is/resources/miniholland-casestudy.pdf (accessed Sept 8, 2016).

The information above is summarised from a report on Healthy Planning and Regeneration: innovations in community engagement, policy and monitoring.

Organising a walkabout or community street audit can expose local issues and opportunities. These activities can be done with specific groups, such as children or older people, that may otherwise be hard to reach.

The Community Street Audit method was designed by Living Streets and is comparable to other survey methods where planners or researchers walk through a neighbourhood with residents to discuss and record perceptions.

Living Streets define their audit tool as ‘a way to evaluate the quality of streets and spaces from the viewpoint of the people who use them, rather than those who manage them.’(1)

In Glasgow, Scotland a Community Street Audit was undertaken in Calton by Living Streets. This audit was part of a larger healthy urban planning project and focused specifically on walking.

Residents were concerned about safety issues, a poor built environment and the poor quality of the neighbourhood generally. Although walking was the main form of transport for residents, the area had the lowest levels of physical activity in Glasgow’s Smarter Choices Smarter Places Programme.

The Calton area was not far from Glasgow city centre, yet residents did not want to go into the centre to access most activities and services. More detailed findings uncovered issues with pedestrian facilities such as crossings, pedestrian priority (length of crossing time), legibility, local traffic speeds, accessibility, maintenance, crime and safety.

The report also explored assets that could be further developed or improved (such as a disused church that could be a café or community centre) for use as local social destinations.

The findings from the audit were intended to inform the council’s local development framework. A senior planner from the council was quoted as saying:

‘The response to the Street Audit has been positive and we have obtained funding to deliver ‘quick wins’ in the area. The final report is proving a very useful document for attracting funding and justifying spend in the area.’(2)

Further information

(1) Living Streets. Calton: Unlocking the potential – A report of a Community Street Audit for Glasgow City Council. 2011.

(2) Glasgow Equally Well Test Site: Integrating Health and Urban Spatial Planning. 2012.

The information above is summarised from a report on Healthy Planning and Regeneration: innovations in community engagement, policy and monitoring.

Although communicating through maps is sometimes seen as a ‘top down’ approach by local government, there are various participatory mapping approaches that seek to rebalance the data used in policy and decision-making.

Some benefits of mapping are that it can help participants to express complex relationships and perceptions of neighbourhoods. This can also contribute to social capital and stimulate interest in and engagement with land-use planning.(1,2)

Mapping can be done in a variety of ways using one-to-one or small group sessions. Participants can work directly with maps or data can be gathered (e.g. through walks, focus groups or photos) and later applied to maps for analysis.

A project in Western Canada involved ‘experiential group walks’ with older people in an affordable senior housing development.(3) Researchers worked with a diverse group of older people (60+) and local decision-makers and service providers. The project used the group walks and a separate mapping workshop to gather residents’ views about place, including active participation in the community and social networks.

Additional workshops developed the results into solutions and an implementation plan. The results showed that older people wanted more accessibility and availability of age-appropriate community activities to support socialising with peers.

Another example related to mapping healthy food access. This project was in a part of Sandwell, England with high levels of obesity, diabetes and other chronic disease. The project used food mapping and interviews. The findings demonstrated that there were ‘large networks of streets and estates within Sandwell with no shops selling fruit and/or vegetables, or if such food did exist it was unaffordable.’(4)

Small retail shops were struggling to survive in the area, particularly if they attempted to sell perishable foods. This mapping led to winning a Neighbourhood Renewal Fund grant for an ‘Eatwell in Sandwell’ project, which linked regeneration and health through food in three neighbourhoods. The team created Food Interest Groups (FIGs) to address the issue of demand, or lack of demand, for healthy foods, using knowledge from the community.

Further information

(1) Talen E. Bottom-Up GIS: A New Tool for Individual and Group Expression in Participatory Planning. Journal of the American Planning Association 2000; 66: 279–94.

(2) Corbett J. Good practices in participatory mapping: A review prepared for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). 2009. https://www.ifad.org/documents/10180/d1383979-4976-4c8e-ba5d-53419e37cbcc (accessed Sept 8, 2016).

(3) Fang ML, Woolrych R, Sixsmith J, Canham S, Battersby L, Sixsmith A. Place-making with older persons: Establishing sense-of-place through participatory community mapping workshops. Social Science & Medicine DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.07.007.

(4) Rosemary Kyle, Angela Blair. Planning for health: generation, regeneration and food in Sandwell. Intl J of Retail & Distrib Mgt 2007; 35: 457–73.

The information above is summarised from a report on Healthy Planning and Regeneration: innovations in community engagement, policy and monitoring.

Photographs are a great way to understand perceptions of place. Image-based methods can be particularly useful for engaging with young people or those with varying verbal/writing abilities. Specific approaches include ‘photo-survey’ and Participatory Photo Mapping.

Photo survey combines participants’ photos (taken independently) with discussion of the photos in one-to-one interviews.(1) This method gives power and control to the participant and may uncover parts of the city and residents’ lives that are not often seen by ‘outsiders’.

Participatory Photo Mapping (PPM) is similar to a photo-survey with two additional steps of mapping the images and developing actions to present to policy and decision-makers.(2) Many combinations of these approaches are possible and need not follow any prescribed formula.

In Belfast, the local authority organised a series of workshops with school children to understand their views about the health impact of their local environment.(3,4) The children were given single use cameras and allowed to photograph their school environment and its surroundings.

The aim was to give children a voice and a role in the policy and decision-making process. The children expressed strong preferences for green spaces (even small lots), clean public spaces and calmer traffic.

Further information

(1) Moore G, Croxford B, Adams M, Refaee M, Cox T, Sharples S. The photo‐survey research method: capturing life in the city. Visual Studies 2008; 23: 50–62.

(2) Dennis Jr. SF, Gaulocher S, Carpiano RM, Brown D. Participatory photo mapping (PPM): Exploring an integrated method for health and place research with young people. Health & Place 2009; 15: 466–73.

(3) Shaping Healthier Neighbourhoods for Children. 2011. http://www.belfasthealthycities.com/sites/default/files/HealthierNeighbourhoodsReport.pdf (accessed May 10, 2017).

(4) Boydell L. Shaping healthier neighbourhoods for children. 2012. http://www.healthycities.org.uk/uploads/files/045_belfast.pdf.

The information above is summarised from the report ‘Healthy Planning and Regeneration: innovations in community engagement, policy and monitoring‘.

Community workshops and events can accommodate many people and provide an opportunity for local government or a developer to both communicate messages and hear from the community. Community groups may also be able to help with organisation and facilitation of large events.

One example of community participation related to mobility infrastructure is from Newcastle City Council in England. The Council began developing a city-wide Movement and Access Plan in 2010. They recognised the importance of mobility for health equity and wellbeing alongside sustainability and economic development issues.

A team of transport planners, representatives of vulnerable people and healthy policy staff spent five months preparing for an engagement event with local residents to gather views about mobility issues in the city. The group gathered existing data and asked a range of community groups to prepare posters about travel in the local area.

There were 90 people at the event which began with a drama performance to highlight the difficulties older people face when leaving the house. The ice-breaker was followed by small group discussions in nine ‘Travel Zones’ using the prepared posters.

In the small groups, participants used stickers to connect their ideas to improvements across the wellbeing topic areas: social wellbeing/inclusion, physical wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, financial wellbeing or environmental wellbeing.

Voting pads were used to gather data during the event. Respondents reported having the greatest difficulty getting to leisure and learning opportunities, followed by family and friends, work and shopping. People described a number of barriers to getting around on foot and they developed solutions to address these issues.

Barriers included:

• parked cars on pavement
• pot holes
• loose pavements
• road safety
• facilities
• slippery pavement surfaces
• width of roads and pavements
• wheelie bins obstructing pavements
• poorly lit subways
• off putting shrubbery
• litter

Solutions to these issues included:

• railings on pavements to prevent car parking
• better maintenance of paving
• improved lighting
• restricting height of plants
• inspection of city pedestrian crossings with the Disability Forum
• better winter maintenance
• resolving issues with drainage channels and accessible buses
• addressing hazardous metal studs in the city centre

Organisers said that the event helped to build a sense of common understanding of the mobility issues facing people in the city. It also helped the transport and planning officers connect with different stakeholders and residents. The event supported a bid to a Local Sustainable Transport Fund.

Further information

Getting out and about easily. 2011. Newcastle Partnership. Available from: https://www.wellbeingforlife.org.uk/sites/default/files/Getting%20out%20and%20about%20easily%2018th%20Feb%202011.pdf (accessed Sept 24, 2016).

Getting out and about easily by Foot: Tablecloth Comments. 2011. Available from: https://www.wellbeingforlife.org.uk/sites/default/files/GOAB%20Easily%20by%20Foot.pdf (accessed Sept 24, 2016).

The information in this post is summarised from the report ‘Healthy Planning and Regeneration: innovations in community engagement, policy and monitoring‘.

Image credit: Peds.org, design workshop

A commonly recommended approach to understanding places which are important for social networks and interaction is community asset mapping. Existing community assets can be used to build social capital through a variety of programmes such as befriending schemes and supporting volunteering.

An example of asset mapping for health is from Seattle, Washington, USA. Planners used asset mapping to undertake a Healthy Living Assessment as part of the planning process for a small area plan in the Rainier Beach neighbourhood.(1)

The assessment combined public health data with data collected at the local level by asking residents to map neighbourhood assets and how they commuted to these. The planners then produced maps which showed the community gathering places and how they were connected.

The Healthy Living Assessment included a framework, indicators, a questionnaire and asset mapping.

(1) Ricklin A, Kushner N. Healthy Plan Making – Integrating Health Into the Comprehensive Planning Process: An analysis of seven case studies and recommendations for change. Available from: https://planning-org-uploaded-media.s3.amazonaws.com/legacy_resources/research/publichealth/pdf/healthyplanningreport.pdf.

Image credit: JSeattle